Everyone loves babies. They are cute and so much fun, but they grow up. How weird would it be for a baby boy to still be sucking his thumb when he’s forty years old and has a beard! It’s precious when a child first crawls, but something would be wrong if they never learned to walk.
Growth is normal in the natural world and should be in our spiritual lives also. But there is a pandemic of spiritual immaturity in the body of Christ today. Many Christians have not gone beyond the baby food stage into eating strong meat yet (Heb. 5:14). This is not the Lord’s will. He wants us to grow up.
First Peter 2:1-3 says,
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Unlike our physical bodies which grow naturally, we must pursue spiritual maturity. It doesn’t happen automatically.
I have a new teaching that gives four essentials for spiritual maturity. They are total surrender, renewing of the mind, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and discovering our new identity in Christ. Just as a forty-year-old who can’t walk, talk, or take care of himself would still be a baby, so any believer who is lacking in these four areas has not reached Christian maturity.
Romans 12:1 says that being a living sacrifice is only our reasonable service. The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition says being a living sacrifice is “your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.” That’s saying being totally committed to the Lord isn’t just for the clergy or the “super saints.” It just makes sense for each one of us to give all we have and be thankful to Him for all He has done for us. That’s the first step towards maturity.
Then Romans 12:2 gives us the second step towards spiritual maturity: we are to renew our minds through the Word of God. God’s Word contains everything essential for us to grow up in Him. The truth of God’s Word will make us free (John 8:32), but it’s only the truth we know that makes a difference. What we don’t know is killing us! That is literally true (Hos. 4:6).
The Christian life is about more than being born again and then waiting to go to heaven. It’s sad to say, but there are so many Christians who don’t know that. They don’t understand what it takes to grow in Christ, and they therefore don’t live the abundant life God has for them (John 10:10).
Some believers know there must be more than what they are experiencing, but they don’t know how to find it. They are trying hard to grow through their own effort. They don’t realise that Christian maturity isn’t just difficult, it’s impossible on our own. That brings me to the third element of Christian maturity. You must have the power of God’s Holy Spirit working in you to mature.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of the greatest gifts
the Lord has given us. It is so important to receive the Holy Spirit that Jesus
even said it was to our advantage for Him to leave because then the Holy Spirit
would come (John 16:7). That’s amazing!
I would never take anything away from the ministry of Jesus while He was here on this earth. It was totally supernatural. But Jesus said having the Holy Spirit in us is better than having Him with us. Wow! That’s saying a lot. It is impossible to mature without the help of the Holy Spirit. He’s our teacher, but we have to show up for class.
Then, and only then, will we begin to get a revelation of our true identity in Christ. One of the most mature believers in Scripture was the Apostle Paul. He wrote half of the books in the New Testament. What was his secret? It was Christ living through him by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 2:20 says,
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
An identity crisis is a huge hinderance to Christian maturity. It’s not who we are on the outside that counts. It’s who we have become in Christ that is the new creation spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
I would love for you to get this new series I’ve just made.
It will expand on each of the points I’ve made in this article, and I believe
it would give you a track to run on towards becoming mature in the Lord.
We love you and want God’s best for you!
Andrew and Jamie
Four Essential Elements of Christian Maturity
In Andrew Wommack’s teaching Four Essential Elements of Christian Maturity, learn about the basic things needed to go from being a baby in Christ to a full-grown, mature believer.
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